In what could be deemed a Friday Night Block Party by the Wizards, (Washington tallied a total of 13 blocks), David Lee’s Heroics with 1.6 seconds remaining in overtime preserved a Knicks victory which ended an 8 game losing streak that dates back to the 5th of February and lasted 23 days. Lee’s driving lefty layup against the Wizards 7′ footer Javalee McGee also preserved the heroic antics of fellow Knicks Al Harrington. Harrington was reportedly excited about his visit to the White House where he met the Comander and Chief, President Obama and it showed in his on court performance in the Nation’s Capital. Harrington dropped in 37 points from the 2nd quarter on with 17 points coming in the 4th quarter. However, Harrington could have easily become the scape goat in another Knicks loss. Buckets found himself in the position of being a scapegoat when he missed critical freethrow shots with about a minute and then 30 seconds remaining in regulation. Harrington’s missed free throw shots resulted in the Wizards tying the game on Randy Foye’s jumper to force overtime.Sadly, Foye’s successful jumper to force the game into overtime, again pointed to the Knicks defender’s failure to utilize the foul to give when they had it available.

The Knicks succeeded in out-rebounding the Wizards by a 45 to 43 and also outpaced the Wizards with points in the paint at a 54 to 48 clip. Yet, the Knicks again appeared powerless to allow opposing front line big men to do damage inside as the Wizards, Andray Blatche, tallied 26 points, 18 rebounds and 3 blocks against the Knicks with the assistance of sophmore Javale MaGee’s 18 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocked shot performance.

The Game was competitive and contested at times throughout the game. Although both teams had defensive lapses, the Knicks did a better job of getting to and cashing in on free throw opportunities as the Knicks shot 72.7% (on 24-33 attempts) to the Wizards 57.1% (on 12-21 attempts). Tracy McGrady in particular was very crafty in drawing fouls against his defenders which helped him pace the Knicks in the 1st and 3rd quarters by tallying 19 of his 23 points in those quarters. McGrady sat out the 4th and overtime to rest the veteran in the Knicks version of the Jabba Rules. Despite a mum 1st half in which David Lee. tallied only 6 points and 4 rebounds, Lee’s contribution on the boards and offensively was felt in the 2nd half and overtime as he finished with 25 points and 16 rebounds with 4 of those points coming in overtime, especially the points that ended the Knicks losing drought. Sergio Rodriguez tallied 7 assist against the Wizards in a relatively mum game. Chandler’s faded offensively in the 2nd half despite tallying 9 of his 11 points in the 1st half of the game. Danillo Gallinari, continued to struggle despite having an enjoyable two hand stuff. He finished with 9 points for the game.